Firenze!

After a short train ride (30 minutes) from Bologna, we arrived in Florence. Having been here a few times before, we felt pretty confident about finding our way to the apartment that we rented for our 4 day stay here. The walk to the apartment was only about 15 minutes from the train station, assuming that we weren't going to get lost.............and amazingly we didn't. We found it on the first try without any backtracking which is kind of an upset of the highest order.

The apartment is a really nice studio on the 3rd floor of a building from the 16th century located very near the Bargello. Since it is an historic building, they are not allowed to put in an elevator. So, we headed up the 67 steps to the apartment with our bags in tow. Luckily, the owner came down to carry Judy's bag up most of the way. During the course of the day, we went up & down those stairs 5 times equalling 335 steps, which is just short of the 413 steps it takes to get up to the top of the Campanile next to the Duomo. Looks like that will be on the agenda at some point this stay.

As you can see, it is a very unique place that is appointed with some nice antique furniture and even a piano......yeah, like we are going to use that! All this for just 100 Euro a night....it's a steal. We found it on the Homeaway site, so if you are ever planning on going to Florence, here is a link to the rental listing: Florence Loft.

Once we got settled, the first order of business............what else?......find a place for lunch. Judy got the name of a restaurant that was supposed to be one that locals went to.....and it surely was. The name is Trattoria Mario and it is on a small side street near the Mercato Centrale. It's not much to look at and you sit on stools at a table that might have other diners at it, but the food & local flavor were a joy to experience. We both got a salad and pasta pomodoro and, I have to say, the pasta sauce was to die for. We sat at a table with 2 Fiorentine businessmen and behind us were some locals that were having a good time laughing & singing out loud. It was a kick!

After lunch, we walked around and took in some sights, bought some stuff at the Mercato Centrale, and.....made our dinner reservations for La Giostra. No visit to Florence is not complete without a trip to the Duomo. No matter how many times you see this architectural wonder, it still takes your breath away. The colors of the marble, the intricacy of the detail and the enormity of the 3 structures (Duomo, Campanile, & Baptistry) are truly amazing.

We had a couple of hours to kill, so we walked around some more and saw the Palazzo Vecchio, Piazza Santa Croce, Ponte Vecchio, etc. It was time to head towards the restaurant, so we started moving over there and..........we got a little lost. What a shock!  As we eventually, worked our way back on course, we passed a little theater just a few blocks from our apartment that had quite a few people out in front. We went to check it out and discovered that Sting was playing there that night. Amazingly, tickets were still available........albeit somewhat pricey. We almost bagged the dinner and went to the concert, but didn't...........much to the dismay of a very aggressive ticket scalper that cornered us as we were walking out of the box office. He was very difficult to shake and wouldn't take no for an answer. He was incredulous that we were saying no to him.

Dinner at La Giostra was nice and the food was good, but it seemed that it was full of Americans. Judy & her sisters had gone here a few years back and really liked it, but Judy said it was really different and more expensive. Allessandro, our tour guide in Bologna, had warned us that the original owner (father) had died and the son was running it now, and he was not a fan of this guy. We should've listened to him.

Tomorrow it's off to Siena.